A social media post by the son of a notorious Cosa Nostra mafia boss has sparked outrage in the town of Corleone, Sicily, as it was seen as undermining the community’s efforts to rid itself of the stigma associated with its dark past in organized crime.
On August 15, the day Italians celebrate Ferragosto, “Salvuccio” Giuseppe Salvatore Riina, son of Salvatore “Totò” Riina, the head of the Sicilian mafia from 1974 until his arrest in 1993, posted a holiday greeting on social media: “Happy holidays from 24 Scorsone Street, in Corleone.”
According to The Guardian, this was the address of the Riina family’s home in the small town for many years, but in 2018, the street was renamed from “Scorsone” to “Terranova,” in honor of Judge Cesare Terranova, who fought the mafia and was killed in a deadly ambush by Luciano Leggio, another leading figure in the local mafia, in 1979.
Walter Ra, who was elected mayor of Corleone last June, described “Salvuccio” Riina’s move as “cowardly” and stressed that the town has definitively left its dark past behind and will not succumb to any form of intimidation. “We will not allow it. We have turned the page, and no one will force us to go back,” the newly elected mayor said, speaking to Italian media.
In a statement issued by the authorities, it was further emphasized that statements like those of “Salvuccio” Riina “sound like a vulgar attack against the state and its institutions.” “All they do is emphasize a negative and distorted image of Corleone, undermining the efforts the community makes every day to rid itself of a reputation associated with the mafia and crime. Corleone is not the mafia. Corleone is history, culture, freedom, but above all, legality.”
It is worth noting that “Salvuccio” Riina later removed the reference to “Via Scorsone” from his post.
Corleone repeatedly found itself in the spotlight in the 20th century as the birthplace of many mafia bosses, including Bernardo Provenzano and “Totò” Riina. The town gained worldwide fame through Mario Puzo’s novel “The Godfather” (1969), which describes the life of the fictional mafia boss Vito Corleone and his family. The first film adaptation was directed by Francis Ford Coppola in 1972, starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino. The film won three Academy Awards, was a global success, and was followed by two more installments in 1974 and 1990.
“Totò” Riina died in prison in 2017. Nicknamed “the Beast” for his brutality, he is believed to have ordered more than 150 murders, including the killing of a 13-year-old boy whose body was later dissolved in acid. In the early 1990s, Riina ordered the assassinations of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, crimes that shocked Italy and led to a major crackdown by law enforcement.
The mafia boss’s third son, “Salvuccio” Riina, returned permanently to Corleone in 2023 after serving nearly nine years in prison for mafia connections, money laundering, and extortion. The previous administration in Corleone had unsuccessfully attempted to expel him to protect the town from further “damage to its reputation.”
